With April fast approaching we are seeing people start to argue, again, about the effect of the $15 minimum wage for Seattle and the impact that it will have on employers’ ability to hire. Now, let’s get one thing straight. The argument often being made is that fewer people will have those important “first step” jobs that let them get their foot in the door and that first level of experience that lets them get something above minimum wage.

Let’s take a look at the numbers, shall we? The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the change for the Seattle metro area restaurant and bar jobs was as follows:

2010 +0.4% (growth)

2011 +0.9% (growth)

2012 +0.8% (growth)

2013 +1.5% (growth)

2014 -0.1% (not growth)

Our growth numbers were getting better and better coming out of the Great Recession, and then dropped to the negatives right after the Seattle City Council mandated a move to the minimum wage. But wait, it hasn’t come into effect yet, so that can’t be the reason, right?

Wrong. People who run businesses (the successful ones, anyway) almost universally budget every dollar they plan to spend for as far out as they can realistically plan. This lets them adapt to changing environmental factors like, for example, a new minimum wage law. Take the Washington Restaurant Association, for example. Their spokesperson was quoted at the seattlemag.com talking about how the average restaurant spends about 36% of their money on labor and have a profit margin of 4%. Once the minimum wage is fully implemented at $15 their labor costs will be 42 – 47%. That means that, unless other things change in their favor, they would be losing money with every customer. It should come as no surprise that people who run businesses who have to do the math and plan ahead have stopped growing.

Let’s agree to stop telling them how to run their businesses and let them hire as many people who need jobs as they can.

This week marked the halfway point for the current session of the Washington State Legislature. So far this session, the legislature has been busy addressing fundamental priorities including transportation and education to name a few. Tomorrow, many Senators and Representatives in King County will be holding town hall meetings to report on activity in the legislature and answer questions. Reports are that the Liberal and Democratic special interests will be at these town halls in large numbers. Republicans must attend to engage at the meeting and to support the legislators we elected. Click here for a list of scheduled town hall meetings across King County this weekend.

National, State and County Republican Organizations are separate organizations, with specific jobs to do within the party. At the King County Republican Party, we are responsible for raising funds to conduct our party operations, primarily on the ground reaching out individually to voters. We don’t register by party in Washington which means we must seek voter affiliation directly from voters in neighborhoods and communities across King County. Our work provides Republican candidates accurate voter information so they can reach the voters who will support their campaigns. Your ongoing support makes it possible for us to identify Republican voters and WIN elections in King County.

You’ve saved the date, now we have the facts. The King County Republican Party Lincoln Day Dinner will be held Saturday, April 25th at the Bellevue Hyatt Hotel. We are pleased to have as our special guests for the evening Congressman Dave Reichert and Congresswoman Jaime Herrera-Beutler. The Lincoln Day event is our annual celebration of the Republican Party in King County. The VIP and General Receptions begin at 6:00pm, doors open for Dinner at 7:00pm. Registration will open next Wednesday, March 18th.

]]>http://www.kcgop.org/news/chairmans-update/feed/0March 14, 2015: King County Legislative District Town Hallshttp://www.kcgop.org/news/march-14-2015-king-county-legislative-district-town-halls/
http://www.kcgop.org/news/march-14-2015-king-county-legislative-district-town-halls/#commentsThu, 12 Mar 2015 20:34:40 +0000http://www.kcgop.org/?p=2231Join your state legislators this Saturday March 14 for town hall meetings located across King County. Take this opportunity to hear about the issues before the legislature and ask questions to your State Senator and Representatives. Information on each scheduled district town hall can be found below.

There is a term, “long-fuse politics,” recently used in a Seattle Times guest column by Richard S. Davis in which he calls for Governor Jay Inslee to remove an archaic executive mandate on Low Carbon Fuel Standards. Perhaps unknowingly providing the most appropriate descriptor for statewide politics over the last 30 years, Davis paints a picture of the mother-ship Green House Gas reduction bills of 2008 as “classic long-fuse politics, confusing aspiration for accomplishment. Lawmakers set goals years in the future, hold a festive bill-signing ceremony and light the fuse. When the spark hits the powder a decade later, it’s someone else’s problem.” Sound familiar?

These proverbial fuses are perhaps most enthusiastically lit in Seattle, Washington. Taking their form in flavor-of-the-month policies, spending habits and the benign neglect required to bring them to fruition. Evidence of such pyromania exists when looking at…

BERTHA- The costliest mistake in Seattle’s history has almost none of the original makers left to see it through.

Approved by a 2009 Seattle City Council of which 7 out of 9 original members are no longer holding office or seeking reelection, followed by a funding bill signed by a Governor who is no longer Governor, all coming after two citizen advisory votes soundly rejected the prior proposals- in which case they just decided to handle it themselves without any more noise from the people that live there. Now, BERTHA is indisputably a giant and expensive fiasco. Should the lawsuit to bill the state for the predictable overruns fail, the costs are most assuredly going to fall on the shoulders of its residents- harder so on low income and minority residents.

MINIMUM WAGE- Minority opinions matter… when they agree with you.

We have already seen jobs displaced and businesses closed in Seattle as a result of the new minimum wage law. More of that is to come as the law’s more stringent requirements come into full effect. Young adults- innately inexperienced- now wade through a much more competitive job market for which previous job experience is, at the very least, a prerequisite for consideration. Seattle-based Korean American Hotel Owners Association (KAHOA) president Michael Park and fellow member Ronald Oh signed on as plaintiffs with the International Franchise Association in a lawsuit over what they call a discriminatory minimum wage law in August 2014. The KAHOA has 56 members who own and operate approximately 100 hotels in Washington and Oregon. Other minority business owners and employees in Seattle with reason to speak out against the law did not, fearing the attention on them might lead to their or their employees undoing during a time of record deportations under President Obama. No doubt their silence both enabled and empowered the lazy narrative of “equality” and “fairness” that was attached to such a long-fuse law.

LIBERALIZING GENTRIFICATION- Progressive policies are ironic in that they are regressive and provide little opportunity for real progress.

For a city touting tolerance and diversity in culture, race and commerce, there are many disparate impacts stemming from its policies or lack thereof. To be fair, there is no logical reason to assume that the City of Seattle wants to drive out the voice of the minority, it just does; having done so politically already and now doing so on a less noticeable demographic scale. For a city with progressive policies, there sure are a myriad of regressive costs. But isn’t that the plan to begin with?

Benign neglect- benign in reference to city growth, the neglected being minorities- has led this great city to an impending identity crisis wet to the bone with irony. Benign intentions do not eliminate the fact that Koreans were conveniently ignored during the minimum wage debate, or that black median household income has dropped 57.3% since 2000, or the forty-thousand Latinos with little to no representation- or chance to attain it- in their City Government. There is such a thing as disparate impacts associated with liberal policy and they are taking full effect right before our very eyes. Plain and simple, they can no longer afford to live there. Seattle’s politicians have nothing against minority residents; they don’t think they are wealthy enough for the city- and plan accordingly.

To be a bastion of diversity and equality, you must first be… diverse and equal. But it is not just minorities that feel the hurt; every single Seattleite will suffer financial loss or worse at the continued expense of bad policy, especially low-income residents. How can Seattle city councilmembers claim diversity and equality come election season when their voting records do not?

NO LEGS TO STAND ON- As it turns out, they can’t. Not anymore; their “fuse” has reached the powder.

There is no greater incumbency advantage than for a democrat sitting on the Seattle City Council, yet most of the councilmembers responsible for (or that dissented) the city’s reprehensible policies are either gone or getting out. Tom Rasmussen, lead man for BERTHA, has announced no intention to seek reelection. Fellow councilmembers Nick Licata and Sally Clark are also not running for reelection. Celebrate, light the fuse, walk away (and repeat) has become the norm for the Emerald City. The apparently soon-to-be nascent Council, the failure to acknowledge disparate low-income and minority impacts and the inability to uphold any sort of fiduciary duty to taxpayers paints an unfavorable picture and a strong case against a staple of prolonged liberal governance: Long-Fuse Politics.

Suggestion for the city of Seattle: Elect a Republican.

]]>http://www.kcgop.org/blog/long-fuse-runs-out/feed/3A Day at the Capitolhttp://www.kcgop.org/news/a-day-at-the-capitol/
http://www.kcgop.org/news/a-day-at-the-capitol/#commentsFri, 20 Feb 2015 19:30:42 +0000http://www.kcgop.org/?p=2155This past Monday, President’s Day, was our Annual KCGOP Grassroots Day at the Capitol. Our packed bus of energized grassroots activists and College Republicans arrived early in the morning at our state’s capitol. The day’s activities included a tour of the Secretary of State’s Office with a visit from our own Secretary Kim Wyman followed by a tour of the capitol building and grounds. We then had lunch with our King County Republican legislators who briefed us on the important work taking place in both the House and Senate this session. We ended the afternoon by attending committee hearings and meeting with our district legislators. It was our most successful year yet!

The highlight for many was lunch with our King County legislators. Each and every Republican Representative and Senator elected from King County took a break from their hectic schedules to visit with us and share their perspective on upcoming legislation, their committee work and other significant issues are on the forefront.

One of the recurring themes of our lunch discussion with our King County Legislators was their resolve to hold steady on sound budgeting and reforms that do not include new taxes in order to meet our responsibility to educate our children and provide for our communities. You might recall Candidate Jay Inslee during the 2012 election saying this…“I would veto anything that heads the wrong direction and the wrong direction is new taxes in the state of Washington”. Our King County Legislators were pretty clear that they liked what Candidate Inslee had to say about taxes in 2012 a lot more than what Governor Inslee’s budget proposes in a confusing carbon tax and his “Not an Income Tax” tax on capital gains.

We also enjoyed visiting with our UW College Republicans who came along on the trip. KCGOP is proud to support our local College Republican chapters. They are a great way to engage young people in the party and get them plugged into local politics and the legislature. Many of our former KCGOP or King County campaign staff got their start in College Republicans on their campus.

Thank you SO much to all who attended on Monday and to Secretary Wyman and our King County Legislators who took time from their busy day to update us on their important work. We hope to see you all next year on President’s Day…Monday February 15, 2016!

Our hearts go out to the victims of the Chapel Hill shooting, as well as their friends and family. There is never a justification in our society to break into someone’s home and shoot someone, no matter what disputes there might be. It is especially horrible to use violence on someone because of their personal faith or the color of their skin.

Three people were killed, and questions are being asked if it happened because the newlywed couple and the sister were Muslim. Obviously there are no certain answers yet on why this happened, but some facts are becoming clear about the shooter.

The alleged shooter is a man named Craig Hicks, 46. His Facebook page points to a hatred of all religions and conservatives. He used to be a salesman and was studying to become a paralegal at Durham Technical Community College.

All we can do is support the loved ones of the survivors and look to our own communities to make sure something like this never happens again. We must all take a stand for freedom, tolerance and understanding even with those we might disagree with.

Next Monday, February 16th, is the King County Republican Party’s Annual Grassroots Day at the Capitol! Seats are filling up fast for this great opportunity to spend the day engaged in our state government. Your reservation includes a round trip bus ride with coffee and donuts in the morning, a tour of the Capitol building with a stop at Secretary of State Kim Wyman’s office, a boxed lunch with your King County Republican legislators; followed by free time in the afternoon to make appointments with your legislators, attend a committee hearing or explore the rest of the Capitol campus! The bus will be making three stops each way in Bellevue, Kent, and Federal Way. The full day cost is $40. I look forward to seeing you next Monday!

Elections in the odd numbered years are critical to growing our Republican Party and developing the bench of candidates who support our philosophy in government and strengthening our communities. This election cycle is about continuing Republican victories across King County.

The 2015 Election cycle is already heating up! One of the biggest elections of the year will be a special election to fill the term of Roger Freeman who passed away shortly before he was re-elected this past November as State Representative in the 30th Legislative District. It is being talked about as one of the most expensive elections of its kind in Washington state history. Countywide, we will also have Port Commission, Elections and Auditor positions on the ballot. Seattle will see its first election of City Council by council district. All city councils in King County will have seats up for election.

Today, I was pleased to receive the good news that Jane Hague is running for re-election to the 6th King County Council position which covers Bellevue, Kirkland, Mercer Island, Redmond, Medina, Clyde Hill, Hunts Point, Beaux Arts, Woodinville, and Yarrow Point. Jane’s leadership when the King County Budget faced the 2008 financial crisis and her leadership for children and families in the 6th County Council District have served her constituents well. In addition, the County Council Districts which represent the Seattle area will also be on the ballot.

To Victory!

Lori Sotelo, Chairman

King County Republican Party

]]>http://www.kcgop.org/news/looking-ahead/feed/0Support for the Keystone Pipelinehttp://www.kcgop.org/blog/support-keystone-pipeline/
http://www.kcgop.org/blog/support-keystone-pipeline/#commentsFri, 06 Feb 2015 00:09:57 +0000http://www.kcgop.org/?p=2096Gas prices have been spotted at under $2 per gallon. While some people instantly think of global environmental impact as they pull up to that pump to take advantage of the price, many others are quietly celebrating that they will have a few dollars left over to help take care of a bill or treat a loved one. Lower gas prices are a simple way to help the working and middle class citizens of King County since a greater percentage of their income goes to gas than the upper middle-class.

How did we get to such low prices? Simple, there is more oil available in the world. It’s the same concept with caviar and tuna. Caviar is rare, so it is expensive. Tuna is common, so you can get a can for under a buck. Increasing supply to make driving affordable for those families who have to scrimp just to get by is a long-standing goal of the Republican Party.

This is why Republicans favor responsible drilling and the Keystone pipeline. When people truly look into the effects of responsible drilling and shipping oil with a pipeline vs using trains like we do now, study after study shows that the environment is not harmed. In fact, on January 30, 2015 the Obama State Department concluded its final environmental assessment on the pipeline. They stated it would be unlikely to alter global greenhouse gas emissions.

Once we look at the whole of the issue it becomes clear. Far from causing environmental harm, the Keystone pipeline actually makes our world safer than the train transport we have now. It also helps everyone in our communities who have to count spare change just to get by. Building the Keystone Pipeline will make our country stronger, safer, and more affordable to live in.

This past weekend, more than 500 Republicans descended upon Ocean Shores to attend the Roanoke Conference. It was a great opportunity for open discussion of issues that are important to our party. Some of the discussion topics covered this year were common core, human trafficking, the gas tax and youth in politics. Very interesting panelists led the discussion and took questions. We could have used a few more days!

On Sunday, to conclude the weekend, attendees participated in a Presidential Straw Poll. The microphones were open for anyone to nominate their candidates. It was interesting for this County Party Chairman to hear people so firmly talk about the reasons we should support one candidate or another. Some were passionate about individual candidates, others were interested in candidates who had executive experience or another important line on their resume. In the end, Scott Walker took the highest number of votes followed by Condoleezza Rice with Mitt Romney and Bobby Jindal tied for third.

As I reflected on the Straw Poll exercise, the overall sentiment I felt was the desire to elect a Republican President in 2016. It was clear and deeply expressed by all segments of those present. It was a great spirit with which to end the Conference. I firmly believe that for Republicans to elect a Republican President, we must agree to unify behind the eventual nominee of our party. Certainly we must passionately advocate for the candidate we wish to be the nominee but when the nominee has been chosen, we lock arms and stand firmly with that candidate.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a day to honor brave and courageous souls who have, do, or will one day fight for equality and justice. The holiday’s namesake is a man who continues to epitomize this effort, even after death.

For him it wasn’t about the color of our skin, but the content of our character. His nonviolent protests are a staple of his legacy. This great man was so filled with love, he had no time for hate. This love fueled the Godly work that he never gave up on. He never would have wanted any of us to give up on our righteous causes, either.

“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.